An initiative to encourage the integration of refugees is to be launched in Waterford today and could become a blueprint for the rest of the State.
Integrate Waterford, which has the support of some 70 statutory, business and voluntary organisations in the city, as well as refugees, will seek to develop a model of best practice in Ireland.
It is specifically aimed at integrating refugees, but will also be made relevant to asylum-seekers where this is possible, according to the project's manager, Mr Joe Moran. "The issue of refugees and the wider issue of immigration are here to stay and Waterford will play its part just as other parts of the country will be obliged to do the same. We feel this is a more positive way of going about addressing the issues than just waiting for them to happen," he said.
The launch will be overshadowed, however, by the Government's decision to repatriate the refugees who arrived from Kosovo last summer. Waterford has the second biggest Kosovan refugee centre in the State, and residents planned to play an active role in Integrate Waterford.
Members of the Waterford Kosovan community expressed mixed feelings about the project in light of the Government's move. "When your Government has told us to leave the country, it is not possible to talk about integration," said Mr Ejup Pllana from Pristina.
However, Mr Ibrahim Osmani, from Gjilan in northern Kosovo, said the project was very important. "It is valuable for Irish people and for refugees. If we are here, we will contribute as much as we can."
The two men were among a group of Kosovars elected by residents of the centre to take part in a forum which will implement the project over the coming months. The 70-plus organisations approached, from Waterford Corporation to the Chamber of Commerce, to voluntary bodies such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, will participate. Church leaders, local politicians and the South Eastern Health Board will also be involved.
The forum will be broken into several sub-groups which will examine how refugees can be successfully integrated under various headings such as education, employment, housing and health services. A report on the various sub-groups' findings is to be completed in about six months.
The ambitious project is part-funded by the EU and the Refugee Agency and was conceived several months ago, before controversy began in various communities over the planned dispersal of asylum-seekers.
Mr Moran, a former deputy director of the Refugee Agency, said the project was partly inspired by the welcome given to those fleeing the war in Kosovo last year. "We got a lot of support from the people in the different communities where the [refugee] centres were set up and we felt something needed to be done to build on that positive reaction."
Organisations approached over the past six weeks and invited to take part in the forum have responded enthusiastically, he said. "Many of them have been saying to us that they were very concerned about this issue but didn't know how to do anything about it. This forum gives them an opportunity to contribute to society's response."
Mr Moran hopes the project will be more than a paper exercise, and at least some of the report will be implemented.
"Along the way one of the key things we will be asking the forum and the groups within it to consider is what happens at the end of it." But will the impact of the project be reduced as a result of the decision to repatriate, in effect, Waterford's entire refugee community? "Yes" and "no", Mr Moran said.
While a lot of people were very disappointed about the decision, support had to be provided to refugees for whatever time they were in Ireland.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, had been closely involved with the Kosovan people in Ireland, he said. "It would be very hard to believe that she would support the return of people to Kosovo in any circumstances other than those which she felt were acceptable.
"Yet locally in Waterford, both among Kosovars themselves and Irish people who have provided support for them, there is a belief that Kosovo is not safe for their return. This is an emerging issue."
Integrate Waterford also has financial assistance from the Clann Housing Association, Fas South East and Waterford Area Partnership, and has established links with the British and Dutch Refugee Councils to examine best practice in those countries. It will be launched by the Mayor of Waterford, Mr Pat Hayes.
